No. 26 – Bo-snia-il!

 I do try.

I know what it looks like - more beef wrapped in yet more pastry. But this is sheer coincidence and I had to cook this pita because the last burek (which this essentially is) failed due to my terrible filo making skills. This time the pastry came readymade in the form of jus-rol and was, as you’d expect – perfectly thin. With the pastry made there was nothing to worry about.

Well not exactly. (Minor) panic ensued. I had to work extremely fast, so the pastry wouldn’t dry out and become completely useless, yet not too fast so that I’d rip the delicate sheets. This lead to what I can only describe as a slow fluster. The sheer amount of butter needed to brush and glue sheets together, to make the mile of pastry was quite alarming. I therefore underestimated the amount to melt and I was left shouting “I need more butter! Get me more butter!” Pity then, that there was no one around.

Rolling a mile long sausage without tearing it was no mean feat either, but after a little self-assured pep talk, the only thing left to do was go for it. Recalling a lesson from my playschool days, I managed, with minimal tears, to roll the sausage and transform it into quite a beautiful snail, even if I do say so myself. I had great fun making this. It was after all, the food equivalent of play-doh, glue and paper, and who says you shouldn’t play with your food?

Bosnian Pita

Oh, and it didn’t taste half bad either.

Serves 4 – 6

oil for frying

500 g minced beef

1 large onion, chopped

1 clove of garlic, chopped

1 tbsp paprika

1 tsp all spice

salt and pepper

grated cheddar cheese, optional

1 packet of jus-rol filo pastry (6 sheets)

½ cup of butter

Fry the chopped onion in a little oil with the garlic, until softened. Add the mince and spices and cook until browned and crumbly, but not dry. Allow to cool completely.

Clear yourself a large work surface and dust with flour. Melt the butter and begin to assemble your filo strip. Lay three of the six sheets side by side (longways) and brush butter where they overlap to glue them together. Brush the entire surface of the now long sheet and lay the other 3 sheets on top. You now have the finished sheet.

Place the mince mixture down the middle of the sheet, sprinkle with cheese and brush either side with a little butter. Proceed to roll it up so you have a giant sausage. Now roll it up into a snail shape, transfer it to a suitable greased dish and brush with the remaining butter. Bake in a 220 degree oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve in slices, hot or cold with cucumber and yogurt.

No.9 - Don't burst on me Argentina!

Feet up in front of the telly, a colossal pile of my new favorite thing - empanadas with a spicy tomato dip, juice dripping down my face and arms, uncontrollable mmmmms and lets be honest, my idea of heaven. Spicy beef, olives and a hard-boiled egg all wrapped up in a puff pastry paradise – what more could you want? A glass of wine maybe? Done.

What more can I say? Beware though, they are extremely addictive!

Empanadas

These are the most worthwhile thing I've made so far. I love anything wrapped in pastry but there really are something else, not difficult just a little time consuming but fun at the same time (for me anyway) because they're so damned cute. My inexperience with pastry (in Argentina they use a kind of ‘over and pinch’ motion that I neither had the patience nor the knack for) and the fact that I crammed them with filling meant that they inevitably burst open in the oven. This doesn’t phase me in the slightest as I haven’t yet heard of anyone complain of too much filling in their pie. True to my word (see Armenia), I bought the pastry this time and will definitely be doing so in future. God bless Mr. Jus-rol!

Makes about 12

400g minced beef

1 onion, diced

I clove of garlic, minced

2 tbsp of cumin, maybe more

2 tbsp of smoked paprika, maybe more

1 tsp cayenne pepper

a dash of hot sauce, to taste

about 10 olives, sliced

2 hard boiled eggs, sliced

salt and pepper

1 packet of puff pastry

1 egg, for glazing

water for sealing edges

Soften the onions and garlic in a pan. Throw in the mince and allow to brown, then in goes the cayenne, cumin, paprika and a dash of hot sauce – do all of this to taste. Note: I added way more than in the photo (below) afterwards - spices in Argentina are seemingly more potent than spices from Tesco so I just lashed more in.

Roll out your puff pastry to as large as you can manage (I used the trusty mop rolling pin again) and cut out circles of pastry using any suitable implement. You can do the empanadas as large or a little as you like.

Pile a ‘small’ amount of the meat mixture in the centre of the pastry circles, then top with a slice of egg and a few slices of olive. With your fingers or a brush wet the edges of the pastry and proceed to fold the pastry over to create a half moon, making sure to poke and prod the filling to persuade it to stay in. Seal the parcels as best you can by folding the pastry over itself and pinching. Place on a baking tray and wash with beaten egg. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes at 180 degrees. Eat with an empanada in one hand and a spoon for loading it with tomato in the other.

Spicy Tomato Dip

This is really just chopped up tomatoes with some lemon juice, pepper, salt and a chili but it is absolutely necessary to go with the empanadas. I found a recipe online that served them with a cooked tomato sauce but I thought cooking ripe tomatoes was too much of a shame (and truth be told, too much effort) so I made this bad boy.

Enough for the 12 empanadas

4 tomatoes, roughly chopped

I chili, deseeded and finely chopped

juice of ½ lemon

Salt and Pepper

Lash everything in a bowl and mix.

No. 5 - Angola paint the kitchen red!

Muamba de Galinha

This is one of the dishes that I was worried about (I know it seems as if I’m worried about them all!) due to the fact that it contains a huge amount of oil and not only any oil but palm oil – this is a bright orange, semisolid oil that smells a bit like candle wax. It comes from the fruit of palm trees and is used all over Africa as a cooking oil.  It turns out that it really is just like any other cooking oil so if you can’t find it or just don’t fancy the idea, you can substitute it with olive oil or sunflower oil with a couple teaspoons of paprika for colour. Beware the palm oil has a tendency to spit hot orange everywhere so protect your clothing, your kitchen and your face by having a lid at hand - I ended up dancing around the kitchen yelping!

Locating and buying this palm oil turned out to be an experience - I wandered into an African shop in Moore Street Market not really knowing what I was looking for and sure enough I came across a carton labeled ‘palm oil’. I was then approached by a jolly African woman who laughed at the prospect of me cooking with such a thing. The following is a summary of our conversation (You’ll have to imagine the African accent yourself)…

African Woman                 “You eat African food? Ah he ha ha ha ha, ha ho ho ”

Me                                       “No eh, not really, but I would like to try”

African Woman                 “What you buying this for? What you do with it? Ha ha ha, he he he”

Me                                       “Eh, I’m going to cook it with some eh, chicken..?”

(I couldn't remember the name Muamba de Galinha, but even if I had remembered it, I wouldn't have been able to pronounce  it.)   

African Woman                 (Patting me on the back) “Ha ha hee hee….”

Me                                       “and, eh, make a, eh, stew…?”

African Woman                 (walking away) “Ah ha he ha ha ha ha ha …….”

I can only hope that I will run into her again soon!

Her reaction was another reason I was nervous about the palm oil but I can report that Muamba de Galinha was another successful dinner. So if you’re bored of your regular spag bol and fancy something a little more adventurous take a trip down to your local African market and give it  go!

Serves 2

4 chicken thighs

Juice of ½ lemon

125 ml palm oil

2 onions, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tomatoes, quartered

2 birds eye chili’s, seeds in, chopped

½ squash, peeled, cored, cut into bite-sized pieces

10 okra, sliced into disks.

A tbsp of paprika

A tbsp of cumin

Salt and Pepper

Marinade the chicken thighs with the lemon juice for about an hour. Struggle to add the palm oil to the pan and brown the chicken on all sides. The oil is seriously splattery and seriously orange – expect the chicken to orange not brown! To the chicken, add the onion, garlic, chili and tomato and cook for about half an hour. 

Throw in the squash and cook for another 15 minutes until nearly soft.

Throw in the okra and the additional paprika and cumin – this is where canned palm soup base is required but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Paprika and cumin are probably nothing like it but they give it an extra kick of flavor. Simmer for a few minutes or until the okra is tender.  Season with salt and pepper and serve with rice. Then marvel over how you’ve cooked something authentically Angolan.

No. 4 - Andorra the explorer!

Escudella

I thought that this would be a kind of mediocre dish. It sounds a bit bland – a sausage stew with some past – boring. But let me tell you right now this is delicious! A massive hit with Teresa and Gretta who came over for a little Come dine with me Ireland launch night (sad, I know) which whet our appetites nicely, and Luke raved about it when we had left over’s the next day (and not like his usual “this is great babe”). It's savage.

I found other, more traditional recipes that involved using additional chicken, ham and adding marrowbones and ham bones to the stew. The bone part, I left out (although Luke would have loved that) because this dish was thrown together last minute and surprise surprise, I had no marrowbones in the fridge. If you do want to use them, I think you put them in with the water and remove them before you add the sausages. I would like to think that the recipe below is an unfussy escudella for the busy 21^st century woman. A cop out? Maybe. A cheap, tasty alternative? Certainly.

Serves 5-6

6 cloves of garlic, minced

1 onion, sliced

5 carrots, sliced

1 red bell pepper, sliced

5 new potatoes, quartered

A handful of green beans (just because they were left over from Algeria)

250g pasta (a chunky variety)

8 – 10 big sausages

Pinch of saffron

Chopped coriander (I had no parsley, it will not grow on my ledge!)

Tsp paprika

Salt and Pepper

Get out your largest pot. Fry the onions and garlic for a minute and stir in all the vegetables.  Pour in recently boiled water until it’s a couple of inches above the vegetables. Throw in the saffron and paprika and season well with salt and pepper. Simmer until the vegetables are tender. This should take about 45 minutes although I forgot about them so they cooked for about an hour and a half.  The peppers disintegrated but the stock was damned flavorsome.

Fry up the sausages and slice them into chunks. Add the sausages, green beans and pasta to the vegetables and cook until the pasta is al dente. Keep an eye on it incase you need to add a bit more boiling water. (Traditionally you cook the pasta in water and add in at the end but this way the pasta soaks up all of the vegetable stock). Serve in bowls and scatter with the chopped coriander. Go wild on the black pepper.